Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I, too, want to recognize and say to Senator Portman, who has been a leading voice in the Senate in the fight against human trafficking, what a great job he has done getting us to this point. This was a long, multimonth, as he said, 2-year effort. Senator Portman has been absolutely relentless in pushing and driving this process forward. I commend him for his important work, which will culminate today, I certainly hope, with a big bipartisan vote in support of the legislation in front of us. I also commend the bipartisan group of Senators who worked hard to draft the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, which includes Senator Blumenthal, whom we will hear from in just a moment; Senators McCaskill, Cornyn, and Heitkamp; and as Senator Portman so very appropriately pointed out, Senator McCain, who has been a passionate advocate for addressing this issue for so many years too. We wish he could be here to participate and vote for passage of this legislation, but we know his work over the years has played an incredibly important role in getting us to where we are today. This group also helped lead the effort to conduct important investigatory oversight that has helped us to get to the point where we are today. Last year, as Senator Portman pointed out, I chaired a Commerce Committee hearing on his bill, where we heard testimony from experts on both sides of the issue. We listened carefully to what our witnesses had to say.…”